Teresa Pollard – Character Interview – Part 1 of 1

Shannon here: Biblical fiction author, Teresa Pollard shares insight into her characters’ romance from her latest release, Tokens of Promise. Comment on this post to get your name in the drawing for a copy. Deadline: June 29th, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Teresa:

Interview with Tamar from Tokens of Promise by Teresa Pollard:

• What’s the number one quality you’d require in a mate? 

It would be lovely if women were allowed to have a say in their future mate, but here in the land of Canaan, the male head of the family makes all such decisions.  My father, Benu’el, is a Man of God, serving the one true God, Yah.  I assumed that he would only marry me to someone who also worshipped the one true God, but he first sold me in marriage to an evil man, Ben Qara.  Ben Qara was a slave trader from the city of Tyre and he beat me savagely.  My go’el, my redeemer, interrupted that beating:  Judah, Prince of Hebron, was the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham and they were each followers of the one true God.  Judah bought me back from Ben Qara to restore me to my family.  If I could choose one quality to require in a mate, it would be that he worship the one true God, as I do.

•  What’s the number two quality you’d require in a mate?

  I loved Judah almost immediately and nearly became his second wife.  Judah, my beloved, had called me his wife but then he didn’t marry me.  My father instead agreed that I would marry Judah’s son, Er.  I was married off to Er, but he did not live a life of honor to the one true God, and God killed him.  Next, I was married off to Judah’s second son, Onan, but God killed him too.  Though these sons were raised in a family that worshiped the one true God, they had not made that faith their own and they did not live as faithful worshippers.  So the second quality I would require in a mate is that he keep his promises, that he live in agreement with his words.

•  Where do you dream of getting married?

If my first marriage had been to Judah instead of his son Er, it would have been a perfect and wondrous wedding.  Let me tell you about it.  The morning of the wedding feast, Judah’s wife (Ashuah) and her maid (Deborah) fussed over me, bathing me and rubbing me with myrrh-scented unguents.  The ankle-length linen tunic Ashuah wrapped around me was the softest fabric I had ever worn.  Though it was the finest embroidery work my mother had ever made, it was as sackcloth to me because I wasn’t marrying my beloved redeemer Judah.  The loops of gold around my wrists and hanging from my ears were the wheels of a funeral cart that would bear me to the grave.  The Mistress (Ashuah) and Deborah had wished to pierce my cheeks with rows of rubes and emeralds, but I refused.  I allowed them only to place two small rubies in my nose.  I painted my own face, preferring the gentle powders my mother made over the garish coloring of the Canaanites to which the Mistress was accustomed. 
When evening fell, the music began.  Servants played timbrels and beat drums, plucked lyres and sang songs they made up as they danced to their exuberant rhythms.   They praised Yah for my beauty and for the prowess of Er, and asked for the children a fruitful union would bring forth.  When the bridegroom, Er, arrived at my tent to take me to the feast, his festal apparel made my bridal finery seem simple.  A long-sleeved white tunic reached to his ankles.  Over this, two large diamonds fastened a scarlet apron vest at his shoulders.  Sapphires and emeralds embellished the embroidered edging of the vest and across the many layers of his turban.  He smelled of cassia perfume, and so many gold bits hung from his neck and arms that I wondered how he could walk.
The marriage feast was elaborate.  A fatted calf had roasted over the fire all day.  I sat with the women while Er sat with the men.  The Mistress plied me with many dishes I had never seen before, including a dish of boiled mandrakes that she said would help me relax for my night’s work and would help me soon be with child.  I ate the mandrakes and sampled the other dishes, but it all tasted of ash to my despondent tongue.  Er drank much wine and was soon drunk.  Things went badly after that.
About Teresa: Teresa Pollard is from Richmond, Virginia, and was saved at a young age. She has a Masters degree in English and Creative Writing from HollinsCollege, and has served as a Sunday School teacher and children’s worker for most of the last forty years. Married for forty years, she was devastated by divorce and the death of her youngest daughter, but God has blessed her with a new home and another grandson, and she now resides in Dacula, Georgia. Learn more: www.TeresaPollardWrites.com and www.HopeSpringsBooks.com
About the book – Tokens of Promise: “Beware, Prince of Hebron, her witching ways are strong.”  Ben Qara’s evil words still rang in his ears.  Judah is sure he was bewitched by the beautiful Tamar.  She is all he can think about.  But no, it must not be.  He will not break his vow to Yah.  He already has a wife, and he will have only one.  Tamar must marry Er.
Rescued from disgrace by the handsome Judah, Tamar is already in love with the kind stranger.  She eagerly followed Emi’s advice on how to win him.  It almost worked.  He’d promised.  If only his servant hadn’t come at that moment, she’d be his wife now instead of going home with him to be his daughter-in-law.   Why had her father agreed to this?  Surely he could see her destiny was with Judah? 
See more at: https://shannontaylorvannatter.com/teresa-pollard-the-story-behind-the-story-part-1-of-1/#sthash.CRheEbgZ.dpuf
Come back June 21st for Peggy Cunningham!